A group of more than a dozen women from Chicago’s near west suburbs were arrested Friday after staging a sit-in protest in the driveway of ICE’s Broadview detention facility.
The group of “suburban moms,” several reportedly from Oak Park, were arrested after they hopped barricades and sat down in a circle together in the middle of the Beach Street driveway leading into the federal facility. The women were arrested by Cook County Sheriff’s deputies less than a minute later, according to the sheriff’s office.
The agency said that 15 women ages 23 to 59 were arrested in total, with all of them now facing charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction.
The protestors had set out “to demand an end to the unjust separation of families, as well as the campaign of chaos and intimidation by federal agents in the Chicago area,” according to a statement from protest organizers provided to Wednesday Journal.
“We have all seen the power of parents connecting together to care for everyone’s children and to keep each other safe. We know that community is the key to holding our government agencies accountable for their actions,” said Nikki Kidd, one of the mothers who participated in the protest. “We cannot continue to let our government traumatize children, neighbors, teachers, laborers, and anyone else in our community who is now on constant high alert. If they will drag a teacher out of a daycare, what is next?”
The group includes some of the latest Oak Park residents to be arrested at protests at the facility, which was the subject of several court orders issued by a federal judge on Wednesday concerning the reported inhumane treatment of detainees. Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw will appear in court Nov. 12 on federal charges related to a protest at the detention facility in September.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
